WACO, Texas- Following a series win over No. 4 Cal State Fullerton, Baylor baseball hits the road for a quick trip to Houston before opening up Big 12 play this weekend at home vs. Texas Tech. The Bears (8-7) and Houston (11-3) will play on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. CT at Cougar Field.

Baylor has won three of its last four games after a midweek win over Lamar and 2-1 series win against the Titans. Houston enters the meeting after a 2-1 weekend in California. The Cougars beat Southern California (6-1) and No. 9 UCLA (4-3) before falling to Pepperdine (3-0). BU leads the all-time series over UH, 87-63 and 40-27 in Houston, but has lost the last three contests.

All Baylor baseball games are broadcast live on Waco's 1660 ESPN Radio. Tom Barfield provides the play-by-play with Lark Smith adding color commentary. Live streaming audio and GameTracker also are available for all Baylor baseball games online at www.BaylorBears.com, the official website of Baylor Athletics and a member of the CBS College Sports Network.

BAYLOR MAKES NOISE WITH TITANIC SERIES WIN OVER NO. 4 CAL STATE FULLERTON
Baylor's 2-1 series win at home over No. 4 Cal State Fullerton over the weekend was the program's first-ever series win against a non-conference, top-five opponent since Baseball America's rankings began in 1981. Prior to the weekend, Baylor's last series win over a Baseball America ranked opponent and last series win over a ranked opponent at home both came on April 12-14, 2013, vs. No. 9 Oklahoma (took two of three).

Prior to the weekend, Baylor's last series win over a Baseball America top five ranked team was April 20-22, 2012, vs. No. 2 Texas A&M (swept) and its last such series win at home was May 12-14, 2006, vs. No. 5 Nebraska (swept). The Bears now have eight all-time series wins over a Baseball America top five ranked team.

BAYLOR AGAINST BASEBALL AMERICA RANKED TEAMS
Baylor is 186-268-1 all-time against Baseball America ranked teams, including a 43-75 mark against top five teams. Since 2012 BU is 13-7 against ranked teams and has won 11 of its last 16 such games. At home against ranked foes, BU is 104-100-1. Baylor has eight wins in its last 10 games against top 10 teams. Prior to the weekend, the last time BU faced a top five team was April 20-22, 2012, against No. 2 Texas A&M and BU won all three games.

BAYLOR BALLPARK'S HOME SWEET HOME ADVANTAGE
In Baylor's first eight home games of the 2014 season, it has outscored its opponents 46-23 with a 7-1 record and team .264 batting average while BU's pitchers have racked up 53 strikeouts in 70.0 innings, allowing just 43 hits and 24 walks. Since the park opened in 1999, Baylor owns a 356-145 record at Baylor Ballpark and has never had a losing season in the stadium. The closest BU came to a losing season was in 2011, when the Bears were 16-14 at Baylor Ballpark. The last time Baylor started its home season with five or more straight wins was in 2012 (7-0) as the Bears won their first five home games this season.

BAYLOR WINS 500th GAME EVER PLAYED AT BAYLOR BALLPARK IN HISTORIC FASHION
Baylor's 1-0 win on Saturday vs. No. 4 Cal State Fullerton marked Baylor Ballpark's 500th game. Brad Kuntz, Doug Ashby and Josh Michalec combined to shutout the Titans for the first time all season, giving the Bears their first shutout of a Baseball America ranked opponent since Feb. 23, 2013, in a 5-0 win over No. 12 UCLA and their first shutout of a top 10 opponent since April 21, 2012, in a 1-0 win over No. 2 Texas A&M.

The Bears own a 356-145 record since the park opened in 1999. In its 16th year, the park has hosted four NCAA Regionals and three NCAA Super Regionals as the Bears are 14-8 in postseason play during that stretch. Baylor's best season record-wise at Baylor Ballpark came in 2012, when the Bears were 34-6 at home, and BU has never had a losing season in the park. The park's largest average season attendance (3,255) and largest total season attendance (126,947) were both in 2012. The largest three-game series crowd came June 9-11, 2012, vs. Arkansas (15,104). The largest single-game crowd was April 21, 2012, vs. Texas A&M (5,911). The first-ever game in the park came on Feb. 26, 1999, and was a 22-6 win over Kansas State.

BAYLOR IN TV GAMES
Baylor is now 49-53 all-time in TV games and 2-0 this season as Sunday's series rubber match win vs. No. 4 Cal State Fullerton was broadcasted on FOX Sports Southwest. Since 2011, BU is 19-12 in TV games. Overall, the Bears are 14-23 on the FOX family of networks. BU has now won five of its last six TV games against Baseball America top 10 teams.

BAYLOR AGAINST AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE FOES
Baylor is 94-65 against current members of the American Athletic Conference. The Bears own winning records against all three current members: Houston (87-63), Memphis (6-2) and Temple (1-0).

Josh Michalec NAMED BIG 12 PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Closer Josh Michalec was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week, the league announced Monday. The senior right-hander earned the honor for the first time in his career and joins Abe Woody as the only two BU relievers to win a weekly conference award in program history.

The right-hander from Houston had a fantastic week as he recorded saves (two of which were multi-inning saves) in all three of Baylor's wins. He allowed just one hit and two walks with three strikeouts in 5.1 innings and three appearances while holding hitters to a .067 batting average.

On March 5 in a 3-2 win over Lamar, Michalec entered the game in the eighth inning with a 3-1 lead, two on and no outs. He managed to get out of the jam with a swinging strikeout while allowing just one of Nick Lewis' runs to score on two productive outs. He then gave up his only hit of the week in the ninth but erased it on a double play and added another swinging K.

On March 8 in a 1-0 win over No. 4 Cal State Fullerton, Michalec entered the game in the seventh with a 1-0 lead, two outs and a runner on first, and got a ground out to end it. In the eighth, he erased a walk with a double play to end that frame and followed with a perfect ninth.

On March 9 in a 5-4 win over the Titans, Michalec entered the game in the ninth with a 5-4 lead and stranded a walk as he got a looking K to end the game to give Baylor the series win over the fourth-ranked team in the country.

Michalec is now a perfect 6-for-6 in save chances in his career as all six chances have come in 2014. As of March 10, he ranks third in the nation in saves (6) and is one back of tying for the NCAA lead. Overall, he has a 2.61 ERA out of the pen in seven appearances that cover 10.1 innings. He's given up three runs on seven hits and five walks with eight strikeouts while holding foes to a .206 batting average.

Michalec joins teammate Darryn Sheppard on the list of BU players to earn a weekly award from the league office this season. Sheppard was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week on Feb. 17 after his first collegiate weekend of play. The last time BU had a pitcher earn the honor was on March 4, 2013, when Max Garner claimed the accolade. The last time the Bears had a reliever earn the honor was May 16, 2005, when Woody won the award.

Lawton Langford GETTING ON BASE AT HIGH RATE
Senior middle infielder Lawton Langford had reached base in 19 straight games dating back to last season before the streak ended in the series opener vs. No. 4 Cal State Fullerton. Langford has a .485 on-base percentage and leads the team with 15 walks. His walk total ranks 13th in the NCAA and his 1.0 walks per game rank 17th in the country.

FORMER BAYLOR HEAD COACH/PLAYER DUTCH SCHROEDER NAMED TO SWC HALL OF FAME
Former Baylor baseball head coach and player Dutch Schroeder will be inducted into the 2014 Southwest Conference Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame announced March 7th.

The newly reinitiated Southwest Conference Hall of Fame is sponsored by the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and will induct its second class since 1995 on Monday, April 7, at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Houston. The nine-person class also includes Marci Bozarth (TCU), Chris Gilbert (Texas), Jacob Green (Texas A&M), Chuck Hixson (SMU), David Klingler (Houston), Coach John McDonnell (Arkansas), Regina Cavanaugh Murphy (Rice) and Carolyn Thompson (Texas Tech).

Schroeder's connection to Baylor dates back nearly six decades as he enrolled at Baylor in 1948 and began his Baylor career as a player during the 1948-49 seasons. He was named head coach in the fall of 1961 and continued to coach the team through the 1973 season.

Through his 12-season tenure as Baylor's head coach, Schroeder amassed a 196-165-1 record with the Bears, including one Southwest Conference championship in the 1966 season. He still stands as the program's third winningest coach and was the program's winningest coach until Mickey Sullivan surpassed him in 1980.